In mid-2020 at around the peak of the COVID pandemic, an old friend of mine reached out to me to get my advice on some watches that she had inherited as she knew that I am a huge fan of watches. She brought 12 pieces to show me. As she didn’t have any interest in watches nor did she had any habit of adorning watches, she just wanted to offload the pieces and did not care about how much she could get for them.

Amongst the 12 pieces, one of them was a Chopard ladies watch dating back to the early 1990s that belonged to her mother. It was an elegant 18k gold piece with a gorgeous diamond-set bezel and a lovely sold gold bracelet in tip-top condition. However, the watch was not running so I took it back to Chopard for a service.

As my friend was insistent on selling the watch, I tried to see whether I could obtain a modest HKD 15,000 (c. USD 2,000) for it given there were various listings on the internet that were asking around USD 3,000-6,000. I was expecting the relatively low asking price that I had set to result in a quick sale. On the contrary, a dealer friend of mine had informed me that this was amongst the most difficult type of watch to sell - it was a ladies diamond-set dress watch with a quartz movement.

With no luck in the market after many weeks, I had to do the unthinkable as a watch lover. I reluctantly took the watch to a goldsmith to see how much the gold of the watch case was worth. Turns out I was able to get around HKD 32,000 for the gold watch case for my friend. I kept the movement, dial and bezel as a memento for my friend. Perhaps one day, she would want it back for memories sake.

Picture of the original watch, credit to HOUSE OF MAGIC TREASURES